


Over Tea

by Lunarium



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-19 21:13:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5981146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After their duty as nohecharei, Kiru and Telimezh exchange stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over Tea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zdenka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/gifts).



> For Zdenka who requested a scene of the nohecharei when they are not with Maia.

Telimezh saw Kiru waiting for him by the iron grilles, her lips turned upright into the tiniest quirk of a smile at the stagger in her partner’s steps. He quickened his pace, trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. 

“You seem just about ready to fall over once we get to the apartment,” Kiru commented.

Realizing how obvious his body’s exhaustion must have appeared in full view of the emperor, Telimezh blushed and set his shoulders straight. 

“We were awake all night!” he said, clearly hoping she would not think he had been lying asleep the entire time the emperor was in bed. 

“I know you better than that,” Kiru said, softening her tone and laughing lightly at his reddened cheeks. “You would not endanger the emperor’s life after Dazhis.” 

Telimezh’s smile was faint, the shame in his eyes shining as he broke eye contact and studied one boot, though his manner too slipped into the informal. “You saw me asleep by the window?” 

“With eyes open,” Kiru confirmed with a single nod, “but do not think I thought any less of you! I heard your family required your presence before our shift, and you had been awake far longer than I by the time we conjured here. It has been a long night for you. Care to share a breakfast with me before we part ways?” 

He gladly took the chance, thanking her warmly. She took the lead. 

The house was shared by all of the emperor’s nohecharei, designed so that each half was given to either the First or Second Nohecharei. A few servants ran the household continually, and when Kiru and Telimezh entered, they could smell breakfast being prepared for them as tea was set out on breakfast table. 

With a relieved sigh, Telimezh removed his baldric and cuirass, and undid the fastenings of his collar and wrists. Stripped out of his armor, he joined Kiru at the table and pulled the teacup closer to himself. Kiru had been watching him the whole time, smiling and shaking her head in amusement. Telimezh thought he heard her say something about younger brothers, but before he could say anything, she spoke. 

“I never saw anyone sleep with their eyes open.” 

Telimezh shrugged his shoulders, grinning sheepishly. “I used to do it often as not to disturb my sisters. When they used me as their doll.” This time it was Telimezh’s turn to laugh at the expression on Kiru’s face. 

“Oh?” Kiru gave him the most curious look, sipping her tea and trying to make sense of his words. “Care to elaborate?” 

“I have four sisters—” Telimezh said. 

“Four! Cstheio bless them all—” 

“—And all younger. When I was training in the military, they found out one of my assignments was to stand on guard stock still for hours, so they requested me to do just that. I was on one knee, with my sword drawn as if about to bow to His Serenity, and they were walking about me brushing my hair, and braiding it and pretending like I was a doll to them. The fact I was a solider doll only pleased them more. They wanted me to have the greatest hair on the battlefield.” 

Kiru was laughing from the deepest place of her heart, laughing so hard that she could neither pick up her cup or her toast, and even Telimezh, red as his face was, had to laugh along with her. “We must tell His Serenity this the next time we see him!” 

“No! Please!” 

“Yes! He will find it endearing!” 

“Will it not get me into trouble? For dozing off in his room?” 

“Oh, no it won’t dear. He will not have to know about that.” 

Her smile was the warmest he had ever seen from Kiru. “You remind me of my little brother.” 

Telimezh smiled into his teacup and leaned forward. He had never heard word about Kiru’s brother before, and he wondered if that was the younger brother she was muttering to herself about earlier. “Can you tell me about him?” 

Kiru’s expression turned sad as she picked up her cup. “Seru. He was a maza, like myself, and had just been recruited after the passing of one of maza of the Emperor Varenechibel. He was on the Wisdom of Choharo.”


End file.
